I’ve been trying to take part in as much of the Halloween stuff in “Guild Wars 2″ as I can this week, and last night I finally got a chance to run the short Ascent to Madness dungeon with some friends of mine. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it turned out to be pretty cool. Essentially, the entire dungeon is a long boss fight with Mad King Thorn that consists of several stages. He will ask you to play little games like “Mad King Says” (in which if you emote as he says you will get the benefit of him summoning less baddies to the battle) and throw quite a few bad enemies at you, but with a good party you should be able to get through it with little trouble.

I also attempted the Clock Tower – a special jumping puzzle designed for the event. I will admit, however, that despite the fact that the puzzle itself only takes two or three minutes to get through, it is very challenging. I never finished it and the designer admitted that only 5% of people are expected to get through it. Essentially you must quickly run your way up the clock tower, jumping from ledge to ledge and gear to gear, all the while being chased by this spectral acid that will draw you in if you get down into it. It’s crazy, but it is fun and recommended for those of you who have not played it.

I also, with the help of a good friend, went through the scavenger hunt stuff where you explore Tyria searching for ghosts that tell you about the Mad King. Presumably, information on his reign was largely lost in the flooding of Lion’s Arch, but suffice to say the ghosts don’t have too many good stories to tell you…None, in fact. But for completing the hunt you get a special book that can be equipped in your “back slot” of accessories, and the one you get for getting all 12 locations is quite nice!

Meanwhile, enjoy some choice pictures of the dungeon and the clock tower!:

Every once in a while, a game comes along that I am asked to review that is just so horribly terrible that I cannot stomach playing it any longer than it takes for me to be able to write a cursory review. Sometimes that game is an Asian MMO (though to be fair, not all Asian MMOs suck), but this time around it is a game that is part of a decently-popular franchise called Gladiator. Yet, this game has a horribly-generic story, poor character creation, and pretty bad game play, and at the end of the day it really had no redeeming qualities.

25 years ago, a first-person adventure by the name of “Shadowgate” made its way onto MACs and met with a lot of success. Quite a bit, in fact, as the game was released for other computers, saw a port to the NES, was later updated and ported to the Game Boy Color, and went on to spawn two sequels (one on the ill-fated Philips CD-i and the other on the Nintendo 64). What began as an adventure through a mystical, dark, and possibly-haunted castle evolved into a fantastical world with a deep history and culture.

Now, on the 25th anniversary of the release of the original game, Zojoi, founded by former members of ICOM Simulations, are setting out to create a complete reimagining of the original title. The game will feature beautifully-rendered scenes, over sixty explorable rooms, a fully orchestrated soundtrack, and much more. They’ve created a Kickstarter project in the hopes of raising $120,000 to offset the development costs. Supporters can donate a mere $15 to secure their copy of the game for the PC or MAC, but donating more will allow you to pick up some nice swag.

If you are a fan of the series, you should definitely check it out! Be sure to view the full-size version of the image above and visit the embedded link in this post to see the project, watch their awesome video they made, and listen to the great music!

This week on the show, we have the great pleasure of having my good friend Warren C. Bennett (@warrencbennett) join us to talk about his career as a freelance writer.

Some of you may remember Warren from his work at Game Theory Magazine and Anjel Syndicate, but Warren has been a writer for many, many years. He has written for many different websites and groups over the past decade, contributes to the site My Dead Heroes, and runs his own blog called Random Thoughts. He recently set about the task of turning a passion into a paying career, and this is the subject of today’s episode.

If you would like to find out more about him, or perhaps even talk to him about a writing job, you should check out his main blog at:

Today I got a package in the mail from UPS that contained a brand-new Hauppauge HD PVR 2 recording box designed for use with the PlayStation 3 and the XBox 360, sent to me by the creators in the hopes that I would do a tech review of the product here on my blog and also for Anjel Syndicate. I opened it up to take a look at it, and it seems like a neat little product.

My question, however, is why such a device is actually necessary. See, from what I have read about it, you plug your console into the PVR unit and then output from the PVR to both your TV and your PC or laptop (where you actually capture the video). It would be one thing if the device itself was capable of recording and storing the video on its own internal hard-drive and you could simply transfer this later to a PC for post-production, but it seems like all it does is act as some sort of intermediary between the console and your PC.

Why is that necessary? Couldn’t you simply plug your console in as an input to your PC or laptop and then use the recording software of your choice to record the gameplay?

Ah well…Anyway, I do plan to set this up sometime soon and then give it a go and see what I think. Only time will tell!

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten a couple more games in for review. One is “Clan of Champions” (PC) and the other is “The War of the Roses” (PC), and while I don’t hold out much hope for the second of those games (my opinion of Paradox Interactive is fairly low right now), I’ll still be interested to see how both of them turn out. Expect reviews in the future!

So, Halloween has come to the world of Tyria, but this time the modern Tyria! Indeed, fun times await those who participate between now (technically it began on October 22) and November 1, with fun games, events, and specialty items to be had! Oh, and of course, let’s not forget about the Mad King!

As you explore, too, you’ll find new ores like “Raw Candy Corn” that you can use to make specialty weapons and items and you will even discover foods that grant special boosts to you.

Beyond the Mad King, specialty items, and events, you’ll notice that some NPCs have been changed into ghosts or skeletons and Lion’s Arch is decorated appropriately for the season.

So, if you have GW2 and like Halloween, you should definitely hop in over the next week and check it out!

On October 19, 2012 I was invited by Jeremy Stratton, a member of Massively‘s “Stream Team,” to join him for an hour-long live-stream session of “Guild Wars 2.” We spent much of the session running around the Straits of Devastation and discussing builds, gear, traits, and a few other things. I’ve never done a live-stream before, but I have to admit that it was a lot of fun!

What’s more, the video was listed as being part of the set of streams being done for the site’s participation in the Extra Life charity gaming session over the weekend. Cool stuff!

Anyway, since it was live-recorded and some of you likely were not able to be around to see it, feel free to check it out at the link below: